June 29, 2007

High blood pressure tops list of ailments

Star: KUALA LUMPUR: High blood pressure tops the list of ailments suffered by Malaysians, according to a health survey.
The Reader’s Digest Asian health survey indicates that 61.6% of Malaysian respondents are affected by high blood pressure followed by high cholesterol (48.2%), obesity (40.7%) and diabetes (36.6%).
The survey also indicated that sight problems affected 35.3% of the respondents, arthritis (23.4%), insomnia (20.8%), osteoporosis (15.5%), depression (12.9%) and cancer (9.8%).
A statement by Reader’s Digest yesterday said 60.8% of Malaysian respondents indicated that they were in good health, the highest in Asia, 9.7% revealed excellent health and only 2.1% said they were of poor health.
“Though they rate their health as healthy, 40.7% are actually affected by weight and obesity problems,” the statement added.
The survey also indicated that 63.3% of Malaysian respondents knew quite a lot about awareness of health conditions and treatment available whereby 40% would consider going overseas for medical treatment.
The survey that cut across seven nations in Asia – Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines – attracted more than 24,000 respondents from across the region.
Urbanites in these markets were asked a total of 26 questions pertaining to their health and ailments as well as the use of medicine and remedies.